Improving Careers Guidance for Young People in London

The House of Commons Education Committee has today published its findings and recommendations from a short inquiry into careers guidance for young people. This briefing outlines some of the committee’s recommendations and highlights emerging careers guidance practice in London.

Background

In September 2012, the Education Act 2011 placed schools under a new duty to secure access to independent (defined as external to the school) and impartial careers guidance on the full range of 16 to 18 education and training options, including apprenticeships. This new duty applies to pupils in years 9 to 11. There is no discrete funding for this duty and Department for Education statutory guidance states that: “Schools should meet the costs of provision from their overall budgets, including the pupil premium.” At the same time, the duty to provide careers education and work-related learning was repealed.

Once the duty on schools commenced, local authorities were not expected to deliver a universal careers service. They retain responsibility under section 68 of the Education and Skills Act 2008 to encourage, enable and assist the participation of young people in education or training and will continue to assist the most vulnerable young people and those at risk of disengaging with education or work.

In April 2012 the National Careers Service was established to deliver advice to young people and adults, although the services to young people are limited to web-based and telephone advice.

To coincide with these changes, the House of Commons Education Committee decided to hold an inquiry into careers guidance for young people to see how schools were responding to the new duty. The committee’s inquiry report highlights the on-going debate as to the pros and cons of these changes to careers guidance for young people and makes a series of recommendations.

This briefing discusses some of the committee’s recommendations, explores the impact of the statutory changes for London’s young people and, should government accept the committee’s recommendations, provides a flavour of how the implementation of these recommendations will benefit young Londoners.

1 The term ‘schools’ denotes maintained schools, Academies and Free Schools Committee Findings and Recommendations

The committee received 83 written submissions from a range of organisations and individuals, and also held three formal oral evidence sessions, where it heard from a range of witnesses, including London Councils.

The committee concluded that access to good quality independent and impartial careers guidance is essential for all young people, particularly given factors such as the raising of the participation age (from summer 2013, young people will be required to continue in education or training until the end of the academic year in which they turn 17; from 2015 they will be required to continue until their 18th birthday), the expanding range of educational choices available and high levels of youth unemployment.

With reference to the new duty imposed on schools from September 2012, the committee concluded that: “The government’s decision to transfer responsibility for careers guidance to schools is regrettable. International evidence suggests such a model does not deliver the best provision for young people. The weaknesses of the school-based model have been compounded by the failure to transfer to schools any budget with which to provide the service. This has led, predictably, to a drop in the overall level of provision.”

The committee recognises that, as the new responsibility is now in place, further change could lead to greater uncertainty, with a detrimental impact on young people. Its recommendations are consequently to strengthen the existing system.

The report highlights concerns about the consistency, quality, independence and impartiality of careers guidance now being offered, and the worrying deterioration in the overall level of provision for young people. To aid consistency, the committee calls for government to strengthen existing statutory guidance and be more explicit about what a school must do to ensure it is delivering the duty for careers guidance.

A number of recommendations are made to address the committee’s central concern: the quality, independence and impartiality of careers guidance offered to young people. To help ensure quality, it recommends that schools are required to:

- work towards the Quality in Careers Standard, and to procure guidance services only from qualified providers and individuals
- ensure a minimum of one personal careers interview with an independent adviser is available for every young person, as face-to-face guidance is an integral part of good quality careers guidance
- publish an annual careers plan, which would provide transparency about what could be expected in terms of careers work and would set out the resources allocated to these activities.

The report acknowledges that, although the duty to secure independent and impartial careers guidance was transferred to schools, the funding did not follow (schools are expected to provide the service from their existing budgets). With so many competing demands on a school’s time and resources, witnesses considered that it would be unusual for school leadership to prioritise spending time and money on careers guidance without there being an incentive to do so.

The committee found that the existing accountability measures do not provide that incentive. The Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) noted in its evidence that its inspections do not make a clear judgement on careers guidance provision in schools and that it does not inspect against statutory compliance in this area. Faced with this evidence the committee concluded that the Ofsted framework (the general principles for inspection) is not a credible accountability check on the provision of careers guidance by individual schools. It also concluded that the new Destination Measures as they currently stand are not effective for ensuring that schools meet their statutory duty. The committee has recommended that the Department for Education introduces into the statutory guidance a requirement for schools to publish an annual careers plan, to address this weakness in accountability. Its report goes on to say that plans should include information on the support and resources available to its pupils in planning their career development and that schools should be required to review the plan on an annual basis, taking into account the views of students, parents, employers and other learning providers.

Evidence on the capability and capacity of schools to carry out the new duty was also presented to the committee. The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) cited a survey of its members in 2011 which indicated that 30 per cent of its members were extremely concerned about their capacity to meet the new requirements. ASCL believed that the provision of face-to-face guidance was likely to decrease. Other witnesses noted that, while teachers can be important partners for careers professionals, there are dangers if teachers are expected to take on this role alone and without training and support. The Association for Careers Education and Guidance told the committee: “Unless these teachers/tutors receive specialist training in maintaining impartiality and are regularly updated with information about all courses, employment or training opportunities available to their pupils they will be unable to meet the demand” to deliver the statutory duty.

The committee concludes that too many schools lack the skills and capacity to fulfil the duty put upon them without a number of changes being made and that “schools cannot simply be left to get on with it”.

As a result, the committee has recommended that the National Careers Service’s remit be expanded to include a capacity-building and brokerage role for schools. This role would include assisting schools in designing their annual careers plan and promoting quality standards to ensure robust accountability, and the dissemination of local labour market information.

The committee noted the Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) Committee report on Apprenticeships and its findings that awareness and resources about apprenticeships in schools and colleges was lacking. The Education Committee concurred with these findings and restated the BIS Committee’s recommendation that the National Apprenticeship Service’s remit also be extended to include the promotion of apprenticeships in schools.

There was support for the government’s decision to extend the duty to young people in year 8 and to 16 to 18 year-olds in school or college (announced during the course of the inquiry), as it was recognised that some young people are now required to make decisions about their future in Year 8, for example for entrance to University Technical Colleges and Studio Schools.

The government’s decision to remove the statutory duty on schools to provide careers education and work-related learning was heavily criticised by witnesses to the inquiry. In response, the committee recommends that the government’s statutory guidance to schools is strengthened to require schools to provide careers education and work-related learning as part of their duty.

The committee commends the efforts made by some local authorities to support their schools in taking on the new duty, particularly by working with them to form consortia and partnerships to procure independent and impartial careers guidance and goes on to recommend that the government’s statutory guidance is strengthened to emphasise the benefits of this approach. However, the committee is also concerned that there appears to be too much variation in local authorities’ interpretation of what constitutes a targeted group and recommends that the Department for Education promotes the activities of the best performing local authorities, so that best practice in identifying and delivering services to targeted young people is shared.

The emerging Careers Guidance picture for London’s young people.

Under the new duty schools are free to make arrangements for careers guidance for young people that fit the needs and circumstances of their students. Although schools are no longer under a duty to provide careers education, there is an expectation that careers education will continue to be delivered under the broader departmental definition of careers guidance. Schools are free to determine how to provide both curriculum and careers activities to provide an overall school careers programme.

This places a particular emphasis on the ability of schools to identify and support young people’s individual guidance needs. Consequently, schools are taking a number of different approaches to meeting the needs of their students and are, in some ways, testing out new means of delivering careers education and guidance.

There is evidence of the good work that a number of schools in London have undertaken to ensure their students have access to quality careers education and guidance. However, there is also evidence that many schools are struggling to navigate the careers market place and the bewildering array of free and commercially available online support packages and tools aimed at young people and the professionals that support them.

In order to capture emerging innovations and approaches to delivering careers guidance and to help identify areas for support, London Councils conducted a survey asking local authority colleagues for information about careers guidance in their area and 23 boroughs have responded so far.

Responses to date indicate strong collaborative working between local authorities and schools in some areas to ensure the delivery of careers guidance and the continued delivery of careers education in many schools. However, responses also highlight a significant reduction in the availability of face-to-face guidance for young people and a very low take-up of quality standards.

Nearly half (48 per cent) of responding authorities indicated that they had been involved in the commissioning of careers guidance with schools in their area. As both schools and local authorities have responsibilities in this area, a joint approach to commissioning provides an opportunity to ensure that a coherent and integrated service is available to young people. Detailed responses to questions on emerging good practice highlighted the tangible benefits of joint commissioning for all involved – from economies of scale, through pooling of resources, to ways of working that encourage regular sharing of information on young people at risk so that the right support can be organised at the right time for young people.

The authorities that responded indicated that schools in their area are delivering face-to-face guidance through a number of channels, with the majority (65 per cent) through commissioned services from a private provider. Other channels of delivery were commissioned services from the local authority, from a college or consortia arrangements with other schools.

In response to the question ‘Which year groups receive face-to-face, individual careers guidance?’, 95 per cent of responding authorities indicated year group 11; 75 per cent year group 10; and 87 per cent year group 9.

At face value this is very encouraging, although when asked to identify gaps and areas for support, many respondents noted a significant reduction in the resources allocated to face-to-face guidance since the change in responsibilities. A few respondents raised concerns that a small number of schools did not appear to have made arrangements for access to independent (i.e. external) careers guidance.

When asked if schools in their area are continuing to deliver careers education, 30 per cent of boroughs that responded indicted that all schools were doing so; and 55 per cent indicated that most schools were continuing delivery. Survey responses indicate that schools use a number of ways to deliver careers education - for example, employer visits and talks, careers events, careers education integrated into tutorial time or embedded in Personal, Social and Health (PHSE) lessons - with the majority (94 per cent) using a mixture of these and other methods. When asked: ‘What proportion of schools in your local authority already hold a quality accreditation for careers education and information, advice and guidance?’ just over half of responding authorities indicated that ‘a few schools’ hold accreditation. Respondents also indicated that there appeared to be very little appetite from schools to achieve a quality accreditation.

Quality accreditation requires a school to invest time and money, which could be genuine barriers when managing competing priorities. However, the figures also suggest a potential lack of understanding and knowledge about accreditation, so we will explore this further.

**Commentary**

Since announcements on unprecedented funding reductions and a changing role for local authorities in education from government in 2010, the careers guidance landscape has changed considerably. Although mention of the Connexions Service still elicits the ‘marmite effect’ of strongly for or against but nothing in between, there are no calls for its return, as evidenced in the Education Committee’s report. However, the many references to a need for consistency strongly suggest a desire for a more robust framework within which schools – and local authorities – could operate.

The committee’s recommendation for the National Careers Service remit to be expanded to capacity-build schools, and for that expansion to be funded, is welcome. The committee suggests that the National Careers Services should particularly support schools with planning, quality assurance and labour market intelligence. Our survey highlights good labour market intelligence as one of the most significant gaps in the new careers guidance model. Should the government support this recommendation, we would seek to work closely with the National Careers Service to ensure that schools have access to timely and accurate labour market information to support the delivery of sound careers education and guidance. Given that this is such an urgent issue we cannot wait, so we are working with a data partner and the London Enterprise Panel to ensure up-to-date labour market information is available to schools as soon as possible.

Our survey clearly highlights partnership working as one of the best ways to ensure the delivery of quality face-to-face guidance. All the examples of good practice we received through our survey refer to partnership working, from co-ordinated commissioning through to careers education, information, advice and guidance networks. The Education Committee has also highlighted the importance of collaboration and partnership in its report.

It is then unsurprising that the survey also raises more support for schools as one of the most significant areas for further support, including stronger statutory guidance, help with sourcing labour market information (as noted above) and continuous professional development. The need to support schools is echoed in recent national reports from the Pearson Think Tank and the Institute for Careers Guidance Studies (Careers 2020), and Careers England (School and Careers Guidance: A survey of the impact of the Education Act 2011). This theme was also picked up in the Mayor’s Education Inquiry.

To tackle this issue and to provide a resource for schools as matter of urgency, we are working with local authority and school colleagues to develop a guide for schools that starts to address a number of areas that schools have identified as areas for further support. Should the National Careers Service remit be expanded to include a capacity-building and brokerage role for schools, this will clearly be welcomed.

We are pleased that our call for all young people to have access to independent face-to-face guidance features prominently in the committee’s recommendations. With a dispersed guidance structure, it becomes all too easy for young people to slip through the ever-growing net of services and service providers, in particular it is also important to look at and consider the needs of young people who are not engaged in education, employment or training (NEET). Often NEET young people need the most support and will need to access quality careers guidance outside of the school system. Many local authorities are working hard to redesign services for vulnerable young people and are working with schools to ensure that these services complement the schools offer. But we must ensure that this work is also supported and complemented by the many centrally funded programmes delivering in local areas which include careers guidance, such as the Youth Contract, so that there are no opportunities for young people to slip through the net.

The changes to the careers guidance landscape cannot be viewed in isolation. Careers guidance has always been a component of a broader range of support, particularly when considering local authorities responsibilities to vulnerable young people. Local authority youth support services have also been undergoing significant change over the past months and this new environment provides new opportunities for young people to access guidance. The recent Future Models for Youth report (funded through the Leaders for London programme) found that there has been a diverse range of creative responses to current financial challenges, with the involvement of young people strongly embedded in change processes.

The new duty for schools to secure access to independent and impartial careers guidance was introduced less than six months ago. Though our recent survey on careers guidance raises some concerns, it is not surprising that the emerging picture is varied. It will be important that conclusions are not drawn too early and we will be working closely with local authorities to look in more detail at the new landscape and seek out emerging good practice. This material will inform our work on the guide for schools and will help us to shape a careers guidance framework for London that will aim to support schools and local authorities to deliver the best possible careers education and guidance for all young Londoners. The Education Committee’s recommendations, published today, provide a helpful corroboration of the issues that London Councils has raised and a useful steer for our work on a London framework.

London’s young people compete for jobs and careers in a world-class city, within a global market. The best careers education and guidance will ensure that our young people not only compete - they succeed.

Author: Yolande Burgess, Strategy Director, Young People’s Education and Skills Click here to send a comment or query to the author

Links: Education Select Committee inquiry into Careers Guidance for Young People Statutory guidance for schools: Careers guidance Future Models for Youth

This member briefing has been circulated to: Portfolio holders and those members who requested policy briefings in the following categories: Children and Young People